While famous actors lending their voices to video games is nothing new — Mark Hamill’s work as The Joker in Arkham City is utterly brilliant — it’s a rarity to see a game feature more than one big name star. Even more rare is the game that can attract a half dozen thespians who, between them, can boast Emmy wins, Golden Globe statues and even Oscars. However, it seems that Bethesda and Arkane are pulling out all the stops for Dishonored and the newly-revealed vocal cast is just amazing.

As a result, the game’s credits sequence is going to read like the cast list of an unproduced Tarantino film. Susan Sarandon, Brad Dourif, Michael Madsen, Carrie Fisher, John Slattery and Lena Headey all lend their vocal talents to Dishonored. As there must be at least one of you who doesn’t instantly recognize each of those names, we’ll offer a short primer on each.

Michael Madsen you’ll recognize as the nutbar criminal who sliced off that cop’s ear with a straight razor in Reservoir Dogs to the lackadaisical, soothing strains of Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck In The Middle With You.” Alternately you might recognize Madsen from his work in Saving Private Ryan, Kill Bill or any of the other roughly 500 million films the man has appeared in since 1982. Oh, and he also voices one of the characters in Grand Theft Auto 3. Just, whatever you do, don’t Google the words “Michael Madsen sex tape.” Trust us on this one.

Moving right along, we come to John Slattery. While his name might be the least recognizable to appear on the Dishonored cast roster, if you were to see his face you’d instantly recognize him as that guy from Mad Men who isn’t John Hamm. No, no that one. That’s Christina Hendricks. Slattery is the white-haired gent who plays Roger Sterling on the acclaimed drama. Likewise, he played Tony Stark’s pappy in Iron Man 2.

Like Slattery, Lena Headey is relatively new to the Hollywood scene, though her appearances so far bode well for her future in Tinsel Town. She plays Cersei Lannister on HBO’s Game Of Thrones adaptation, was Sarah Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and portrays the main antagonist Ma-Ma in the upcoming Karl Urban-starring action flick Dredd. Also, she’s lovely and British, and speaking as an ungrateful American we find that kind of thing absolutely intoxicating.

Brad Dourif should be a name known to any of you with true geek cred — though it’s far more likely that you’d only recognize the man’s unsettling visage. Despite all reports indicating that Dourif is a genuinely nice dude, he’s made a career of playing abominable, horrifying people (and creatures) in a frankly massive number of horror flicks. He’s done quite a bit of dramatic work over the years (and is right up there with Sam Waterston and Jerry Orbach as one of the most memorable actors to ever appear on Law & Order), but his most recognizable roles include Chucky from the Child’s Play films, Grima Wormtongue from Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy and Piter De Vries in the 1984 adaptation of Dune. Like Madsen, Dourif has experience working in video games, as he previously lent his vocal talents to Myst III: Exile and Gun.

Carrie Fisher is … well, Carrie Fisher played Princess Leia in the first three Star Wars films. ‘Nuff said.

And if you don’t know who Susan Sarandon is, we congratulate you on constructing such a wonderful life for yourself in a remote cave system somewhere. She’s been in everything, from Thelma & Louise, to the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and over the years has picked up an Oscar and four additional nominations for the biggest prize in Hollywood. Plus, at age 66 she looks way, way better than most actresses 40 years her junior, which we’re assuming is some kind of dark magic formulated by Tim Robbins during the filming of Bull Durham.

According to a statement from Arkane Studios president Raphaël Colantonio the developer is understandably pleased to have signed such a star-studded cast for its biggest game to date. “Having such talented actors voice Dishonored’s compelling cast of characters adds a rich, powerful element to the game,” Colantonio said. “We want to draw people into this virtual world and make it feel real. This celebrated cast adds wonderful depth and credibility to the overall Dishonored gameplay experience.”

You can enjoy the vocal stylings of the aforementioned actors when Dishonored hits the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows platforms on October 9, 2012. Now would be a good time to develop strong anticipation for this thing.